1 of 2 | Richard Dannatt was installed as the 159th Constable of the Tower of London on Oct. 7, 2009. He was appointed to Brtiain’s House of Peers in 2011. File Photo by Jonathan Brady/EPA
Lords Richard Dannatt and David Evans, two members of Britain’s House of Peers, are facing suspensions for breaching rules, including providing parliamentary services in return for “payment or reward.”
The Conduct Committee on Monday published two reports on the men, upholding the findings of the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards.
House of Peers members serve in ceremonial roles in the British House of Lords, the upper chamber of the parliament.
Dannatt was recommended to be suspended four months and Evans five months. The punishments need to be approved by the House of Lords.
They both failed to act on “personal honor as required by the Code,” the committee found.
Donnatt and Evans breached the prohibition in the House of Lords Code of Conduct on providing parliamentary services in return for payment or reward. Evans also breached House of Lords rules on events in the House.
Dannatt, an independent member of the House of Lords appointed in 2011, is a retired Army chief. He stafrted his 40-year military career in 1971, earning the Military Cross for bravery in Northern Ireland and commanding various units.
Evans, known as the Lord of Watford in Hertfordshire, England, is a businessman. He was the general secretary of the Labor Party from May 2020 to September 2024. Prime Minister Keir Starmer late last year nominated him for a life peerage and he was introduced to the House of Lords on Jan. 21.
Neither one appealed the findings or the sanctions
Dannatt said he thought the “honorable course of action was not to waste the Conduct Committee’s time by appealing against the findings but to accept the appropriate sanction.” He noted the investigation “concluded that I had not conducted consultant lobbying.”
Added Evans, “I’m horrified by the whole thing. I’ve had a clean reputation all my life. I’ve never done anything wrong.”
The investigations were launched after an undercover investigation by The Guardian where they posed as property developers hoping to lobby the government.
Dannatt corresponded with ministers and government officials about three companies — UK Nitrogen, Teledyne UK and Blue International Holdings — in which he had a financial interest.
The commissioner concluded that no lobbying had taken place and no payment had been received but he had demonstrated “a clear willingness to undertake activity that would have amounted to paid parliamentary services” and “demonstrated insufficient regard for the need to act solely in the public interest in the course of his parliamentary activities.”
The commissioner also found Dannatt contacted people in government about companies in which he had a financial interest.
Evans had broken the rules by sponsoring events in parliament for Affinity, a company owned by his son, and holding one-third of the shares. He also asked House of Lords members if they would speak at the events.
Evans told undercover Guardian journalists he could introduce them to parliament ministers. He described the meeting with the Guardian’s journalists as “suspicious of the whole approach … in hindsight, I should not have agreed to attend the online meeting.”
Tickets to events were advertised for sale at a price greater than the actual cost per person, against House of Lords rules on holding events, the commissioner’s report said.
He felt that he “did not think he would benefit from sponsoring events for Affinity as a shareholder” because he resigned from the company and transferred shares to his son in 2013.
